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up vote 6 down vote favorite

From one of the survey result (IT related), I came across the following line:

Agile Development and Service-Oriented-Architectures (SOA) represent the “new normal.”

What does "new normal" mean here? Is it an idiom?

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4 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

Ah, it's an instantiation of the "X is the new Y" snowclone (also see here and here), like "pink is the new red" or "ugly is the new cute" or "Google is the new Microsoft". It means (to claim) that AD&SOA, or whatever they represent, are now so common that they're normal now, and constitute the new (normal) state of the world.

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I think this analysis doesn't work, actually. The syntax is all wrong. You can't say "Pink represents the red," nor can you say "Pink is the "new red"" (i.e., with quotation marks). Nor can you say "Agile Development and SOA is the new "normal"". In short "new normal" must have a heritage of its own. – Merk Oct 5 '12 at 7:25
The other reason the analysis doesn't work is semantic. In "X is the new Y", X and Y are either non-semantically overlapping or separate members of the same category. In "ABC represents the "new normal"", this is not true: the second item is the category which the first item instantiates. – Merk Oct 5 '12 at 7:29
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@Merk I would argue in this case that the punctuation of the original quote is flawed. "New normal" should not be placed in quotes at all, and the author simply did so [erroneously] to visually join the two words into a single term. The quote should have read: "Agile Development and Service-Oriented-Architectures (SOA) represent the new normal." Misuse of quotation marks is very common even in professional writing, especially when invoking new language. The punctuation may mess up the syntax and semantics in a strict sense, but punctuation is seldom consistent with new idioms and phrases. – Bacon Bits Jan 4 at 10:37
up vote 3 down vote

I believe in that context it means that AD and SOA are now ubiquitous and essential that they became the normal method of software development.
The way it's worded suggests that the word normal should be changed to AD and SOA, which is an exaggeration of how essential they are.

Yet, being a software developer myself, I think, in my opinion, the fact is a bit too exaggerated =)

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Shorter version: One way to interpret it is that the old technologies that AD/SOA will be replacing were what was once considered "normal"; now, AD/SOA will be taking their place, and thus they should now be the ones to be treated as "normal". I heartily agree with Beemer's take that such things are usually exaggerations, FWIW. – user730 Dec 17 '10 at 5:20
up vote 2 down vote

New normal means that something has established as new 'standard' or usual way.

Agile Development and Service-Oriented-Architectures (SOA) represent the “new standard.”

See also Urban dictionary

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up vote 1 down vote

This is an instance of the template, a snowclone, of "X is the new Y", a phrase that according to Wikipedia may have started with this quote:

"I ADORE that pink ... it's the navy blue of India." --Vreeland, 1962

Here's an interesting diagram showing a researcher's attempts to map all the separate instances of "X is the new Y" in 2005

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